By Lou Modestino
Motorsports Community of the Northeast and beyond – In conjunction with Frank Maratta’s “The Show of Dreams” auto show, a 54-year-old tradition, Race-A-Rama will be reuniting the motor sport community together once again. This will be a true exposition of everything on wheels and will come to life at the Eastern States Exposition Better Living Center, March 2nd and 3rd, 2013.
“The combination of the two shows placed under one roof is a sure winner” says Frank Maratta, producer of the longest running, independently owned indoor car show in the nation.
The “Show of Dreams” features quality custom cars, hot rods, exotic imports and muscle cars from the 60’s and 70’s plus much more. The Race-A-Rama portion of the exposition will showcase Tracks of the Northeast, Divisional Championship Race Cars, and vendors offering racing related products, services and souvenirs. “The Show will come at a time when fans have reached their winter withdrawal from auto racing and drivers wish to showcase and fine tune their vehicles,” says Cal Green, Race-A-Rama’s Sales Manager.
Frank Maratta’s Auto Show came to life in 1960 at the Hartford State Armory and then moved to the Hartford Civic Center and lastly to the CT Expo Center, which it outgrew. This left the CT based show with nowhere more appropriate to exhibit than the Eastern States Exposition which has added another 50,000 square feet to the event and is more centrally located.
With the additional space it was an obvious decision to add the Race-A-Rama component. The event will once again give the entire motorsport community a chance to showcase themselves to an audience they have been separated from at The Big E over the past 3 years.
“I am extremely excited about working with such a professional like Cal Green,” said Maratta. “He adds his knowledge of racing, relationships with vendors, associations and tracks from the motorsports community and this will certainly make our show one of the best to date.”
NHRA announced that Uni-Select USA and its Auto-Plus network of automotive retail stores have acquired title rights sponsorship of the inaugural event at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H. The Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals is scheduled for June 20-23, 2013 and represents the first event in the New England area for the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
“We are extremely pleased to announce the expansion of our partnership with NHRA,” said Brent Windom, senior vice president, sales and marketing for Uni-Select. “Our growth in participation with NHRA saw more than 5,500 customers attend our events last year. We are excited to be an integral part of bringing NHRA Drag Racing to the New England market.”
Uni-Select USA and its Auto-Plus brand also serves as title rights sponsor of the 29th annual Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals, Oct. 3-6, at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. In addition, the company holds naming rights to historic Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville (Fla.). Auto-Plus is also the official auto parts store of Atlanta Dragway, an NHRA owned and operated facility, as well as Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
“We’re thrilled to bring the excitement and power of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing to New England and to have a great partner like Auto-Plus on the inaugural event,” said Gary Darcy, senior vice president of sales and marketing, NHRA. “Advance sales for the event continue to be extremely strong and we look forward to working with Auto-Plus to create a memorable event for NHRA fans in the region.”
“Uni-Select and its Auto-Plus network is the industry’s gold standard,” said Joe Lombardo, general manager, New England Dragway. “This partnership makes them an integral part of NHRA history in the New England marketplace.”
The Toyota Wheels and Deal Pre-Race Show will be held on the New Hampshire Motor Speedway front stretch with a pre-race stage into a game show. Fans who attend on Sunday, July 14 could win cash prizes, all types of NASCAR gear and possibly the big door prize if they are one of 43 contestants who play for the chance to win 10 new Toyota automobiles.
It’s an interactive fan pre-race sweepstakes with more than $250,000 in automobiles and prizes to be given away to fans. It’s also part of the track’s Fans First initiative. Some of the other prizes include a case of Miller Lite per month for a year, product’s from the September Sprint Cup race sponsor Sylvania, Team O’Neal Rally School driving opportunities, a quart of Gifford’s Ice Cream per week for a year, racing mechandise, passes to an exclusive driver’s meeting and one of ten new Toyotas.
The Swift Diamond Snodeo is on all weekend up in Stewartstown, NH starting at 9 a.m. Friday through Sunday.